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The Midnight Library

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Matt Haig
Matt Haig

Matt Haig is a British novelist born in 1975. His works are known for their humor and profound emotional insight, enjoying great popularity among readers. Haig's writing spans a variety of genres, including science fiction, fantasy, and realism. more

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“The point is there is a strong possibility that your old life is over. You wanted to die and maybe you will. And you will need somewhere to go. Somewhere to land. Another life. So, you need to think hard. This library is called the Midnight Library, because every new life on offer here begins now. And now is midnight. It begins now. All these futures. That's what is here. That's what your books represent. Every other immediate present and ongoing future you could have had.”

Matt HaigThe Midnight Library
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“And when does each life end?' 'It could be seconds. Or hours. Or it could be days. Months. More. If you have found a life you truly want to live, then you get to live it until you die of old age. If you really want to live a life hard enough, you don't have to worry. You will stay there as if you have always been there. Because in one universe you have always been there. The book will never be returned, so to speak. It becomes less of a loan and more of a gift. The moment you decide you want that life, really want it, then everything that exists in your head now, including this Midnight Library, will eventually be a memory so vague and intangible it will hardly be there at all.”

Matt HaigThe Midnight Library
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“Nora tried to get her head around this. 'So, how do I return to the library? If I'm stuck in a life even worse than the one I've just left?' 'It can be subtle, but as soon as disappointment is felt in full, you'll come back here. Sometimes the feeling creeps up, other times it comes all at once. If it never arrives, you'll stay put, and you will be happy there, by definition. It couldn't be simpler. So: pick something you would have done differently, and I will find you the book. That is to say, the life.”

Matt HaigThe Midnight Library
Book:The Midnight Library
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“Science is opposed to theological dogmas because science is founded on fact. To me, the universe is simply a great machine which never came into being and never will end. The human being is no exception to the natural order. Man, like the universe, is a machine. Nothing enters our minds or determines our actions which is not directly or indirectly a response to stimuli beating upon our sense organs from without. Owing to the similarity of our construction and the sameness of our environment, we respond in like manner to similar stimuli, and from the concordance of our reactions, understanding is born. In the course of ages, mechanisms of infinite complexity are developed, but what we call 'soul' or 'spirit,' is nothing more than the sum of the functionings of the body. When this functioning ceases, the 'soul' or the 'spirit' ceases likewise. I expressed these ideas long before the behaviorists, led by Pavlov in Russia and by Watson in the United States, proclaimed their new psychology. This apparently mechanistic conception is not antagonistic to an ethical conception of life.”

LifeMindScienceSpiritReligionUniverseGoalNatureConsciousnessPsychologyEnvironmentEthicsPhysicsAstronomyTheologyMaterialismAfterlifeDogmaScience And ReligionCosmologyNaturalismWatsonDeterminismLife After DeathBehaviorismPavlovJohn WatsonFirst CauseStimuliIvan PavlovBehavioristsIvan Petrovich PavlovJohn B WatsonJohn Broadus Watson
Book:Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla
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